How To Use Old Postcards...
May 21, 2021 11:01 pm
It's finally Friday!!! Hopefully this weekend will allow you some downtime. If you can pull out the family history boxes and look for old family postcards, here are some ways I've put them to good use.
I use postcards in family history videos. Here's an example of a family history video with limited ancestral photos; most of the images are from postcards, free photos online, and genealogy records (a passenger list, etc).
When I make a video about an ancestor, I have more text than images. I'm desperate for more images. Postcards help fill in the gap. I don't need (and they don't exist), tons of photos of ancestors to tell their story. I just need some image to help the story move along.
FREE - you can go to the free downloadables at RootsTech.org, the OnGenealogy booth in the Expo Hall, and download a PDF book, How to Use Free Photos and Images Without Worry, and get more information about using free images online.
For me, the value in old postcards is primarily the images. That's it.
In our family postcards, few of the messages contain especially valuable information. The subject matter is usually somewhat trivial or the postcard was never used, it was just kept as a travel memory/photo. It may give the address of the recipient, but I typically have that information in my records. I'm not doing deep research into the social history of my ancestors, so I'm left with the images. I'm not interested in accumulating possessions, so I've digitized the postcards then given them away to family who want them.
Making Crafts/Gifts with Old Postcards
I also make crafts or gifts with old postcards.
Quilts
Here's an example of a family quilt which includes images from old postcards. This is from ExposuresOnline.com and is no longer available but quilters could easily make this themselves.
You cut a piece of fabric you'd like the image copied onto, then tape the blank fabric to a piece of paper and put this paper + fabric into the photocopier's paper tray. Place the postcard on the copier. Run the paper & fabric through the photocopier and the postcard image is transferred to the fabric. (See the example below.) Untape the fabric from the paper. Repeat this with all the photos and postcards needed for your project, then piece together the different images for your quilt top.
Gift Cards
I've given away most of the inherited postcards, but the few I've saved include seasonal postcards that I can copy and use as gift tags for holidays. Just wrap a present in a very simple wrapping paper or brown butcher paper, tie it off with jute or twine and attach a message to the back of a historic postcard/tag (printed from a digital copy of the original postcard).
Coasters
And archivists will be appalled, but I've ordered postcard sleeves, like these:
and put unwanted postcards in sleeves to be used as coasters. They're easy to store, they're a conversation piece, and people have fun deciphering the old handwritten messages. It would be better if I went to the trouble to create digital duplicates and then went the extra mile and just laminated those. But, these are almost the equivalent of garbage to me because I've got the digital image saved, so, just being honest, this is what I do.
And, for the record, I've kept a few letters, postcards, etc, from known family members, that I keep in a nice, archival box in case I ever want to try to extract DNA from the envelopes/stamps. ToTheLetter DNA does this, it's costly, and they haven't been able to successfully extract DNA from items as old as mine, but I'm saving a few pieces, just in case. Otherwise, I'm not a saver.
